


look at how he's smiling

by penguinsmile



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Barista Kageyama Tobio, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, University Student Hinata Shouyou, University Student Kageyama Tobio, coffee shop AU, kageyama's grandfather is mentioned, sugawara loves to spark trouble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26400325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penguinsmile/pseuds/penguinsmile
Summary: “Hmmm…” Hinata pauses for dramatic effect, Kageyama’s eyes narrow, “Hold the sugar.” Almost immediately, Kageyama reaches for his notepad, but Hinata grabs for it before the barista, “You’re sweet enough for me.”Hinata giggles as he pinpoints the exact moment realization dawns upon the barista.Hinata finds himself attracted to piercing, metallic blue eyes and uses pickup lines to get closer to barista Kageyama.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 20
Kudos: 184





	look at how he's smiling

**Author's Note:**

> Happy kagehina day! This fic is incredibly self-indulgent, like its ridiculous how self-indulgent it is. Its honestly just a lot of brainrot in one place.
> 
> By the way, if you find any grammar errors, don't be afraid to point them out!
> 
> The playlist that heavily inspired this fic: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3d9Ct3MglY3K3Mp1yc3ZsC?si=cV6k00HhSa6FGRGMEB8FJw

Stretching his arms over his head, Hinata leaves volleyball practice with an ache lingering in the palms of his hands. He strolls off campus and takes in the breezy late autumn air as he makes his way towards the nearby coffee shop. After finally reaching the store, Hinata stops in his tracks as he almost bumps into another college student. 

It seems that he wasn’t the only one that decided a coffee run would be ideal that evening. The local university coffee shop was flooded with tired students standing impatiently on a queue that extends to the outsides of the cafe. Sighing in exasperation, Hinata shakes his head from shock and looks around his surroundings for any alternatives he may take to fulfill his caffeine needs. 

_“It’s called Crow’s Cafe. It’s a lot smaller than the one everyone goes to, but the coffee isn’t too bad!”_ Hinata remembers Yamaguchi, his roommate back on campus, mentioning once when Yamaguchi came back a little later than usual on one of his own nightly coffee runs. Hinata also remembers shrugging off the suggestion at the time, thinking that there would be no reason to walk a few extra blocks just to buy a cup of coffee when Hinata can just visit the cafe right off campus. 

Now with a reason, Hinata finds the address of the other cafe and begins to make his way down the few blocks leading towards his destination. 

Hinata reaches the cafe (Yamaguchi was right, this cafe was definitely a lot smaller than the more popular one) and opens the door to catch wafts of sweet caramel and grounded coffee beans. His shoulders relax at the familiar smell and he takes a step towards the inside of the semi-empty cafe. 

There was a customer standing at the register, making their order, and a few others sitting at tables; the cafe was mostly empty. Hinata stands behind the person currently making their order as he scans the cafe’s menu when a deep voice pierces through his thoughts. 

Hinata’s eyes darts to the owner of the voice, meeting deep, blue eyes. The customer that was previously making their order was gone, and Hinata is standing directly in front of the register between himself and the sole barista in the cafe at the moment. Hinata blinks his eyes to make sure he isn’t just imagining the captivating aura the barista emanates. The barista stares at him with curious face, bangs falling perfectly, but disheveled, across his forehead. Hinata wonders how much effort the barista puts in to keep his hair in such an endearing manner.

“Um, hello?” The barista breaks through Hinata’s thoughts, causing Hinata to jerk back into reality, “Do you want to place an order?” Oh. Right, he’s here for coffee.

“Y-yes!” Hinata’s voice cracks as he remembers he needs to answer the barista. The barista’s confusion on his face lingers, but he nods and continues to look at Hinata expectantly. 

Somehow managing to recite his order and name, Hinata shuts his eyes tight and takes a deep breath as the barista turns around to begin brewing his coffee.

As he slowly opens his eyes again, Hinata’s drawn towards the offending stranger and cannot help but begin to observe the way the barista pours the contents of Hinata’s order into a paper cup; the barista’s face scrunches up in concentration as he shakes a can of whipped cream to top off the coffee. A small smile stretches across Hinata’s face as he watches the attentive barista double check the order before making his way back to the counter. 

“Your medium caramel cappuccino,” the barista adds as he sets the coffee down on the counter. Hinata passes a bill to the barista and takes the coffee with a generous, but shaky grin. 

“Thank you!” he chirps. “You looked so cool making the coffee!” Hinata’s eyes widens at his own words, but widens even more at the momentary flustered composure of the barista across him. 

“I- I what?” The barista stutters out. He’s staring down at Hinata with piercing metallic eyes, oblivious to how Hinata was completely drawn to them. Hinata giggles at his reaction, causing a clear look of confusion to form on the barista’s face. “Thanks? I guess…” Hinata couldn’t help the large and teasing grin that grows across his face as the barista stares at him with a slightly bewildered expression. 

“I’ll come again!” Hinata declares, completely unaware of where this sudden confidence stemmed from, “And I’ll give you a very detailed review on this coffee too.” Backing up, Hinata waves goodbye, his grin still prevalent across his face as the barista stares after him, and exits the coffee shop.

Hinata walks down the street, his cup of coffee warm against his palms and his mind thinking about the oblivious, but bemused stare the barista gave him before leaving the coffee shop. Sipping at the coffee, Hinata shuts his eyes in delight at the bitter, but blended with the perfect amount of caramel taste dances in his mouth.

“Hinata!” a voice calls the moment Hinata opens the door to his dormroom. Yamaguchi peers towards him from his bed, “Coffee runs don’t usually take that long.” Hinata beams at this question as he settles his bag and coffee down on his desk, the coffee almost depleted.

“I just got a little distracted while I was at the coffee shop, Yamaguchi, no big deal!” Hinata responds cheerily as he plops himself down on top of his respective twin bed and takes out his phone.

Yamaguchi raises an eyebrow at Hinata’s words, but nonetheless drops the topic. When Hinata raises his head, he watches as Yamaguchi reaches over for Hinata’s cup of coffee and sips at the remaining drops.

“This is pretty good.”

“So what’s your name, barista-kun?” Hinata has his arms propped up on the counter as the barista marks Hinata’s order on his coffee cup. The cafe was mostly empty, save the occasional customer that passes through.

Just like the previous day, after volleyball practice, Hinata noted the overflowing coffee shop right outside of campus and immediately took the route to Crow’s Cafe. After spotting the same captivating barista from the previous day, Hinata hopped into the shop and smiled as the two met eye contact. Before Hinata rattled off his usual order, he quickly gave the metallic-eyed barista his thoughtful review on his coffee from the previous day.

_“The caramel mixed in with the coffee felt so… gwah! Like it was so well-blended! Maybe a little too sweet but-” Before Hinata was able to finish sentence, the other quickly grabbed his notepad sitting at the side of the register, noting down the mistake as his face scrunches up in concern. Hinata shuts his mouth at this, fascinated by the barista’s dedication, before adding “It was so tasty though!”_

“Kageyama,” Kageyama answers as he tops Hinata’s order with whipped cream and hands him his order. After Hinata pays for his drink, he looks up at Kageyama with expectant eyes.

“Did I forget something?” Kageyama asks, confused.

“Won’t you ask me for my name, Kageyama?” Hinata asks. 

“I already know your name, Hinata-san, I need to write it on your coffee cup.” Kageyama narrows his eyes as he looks down at Hinata; Hinata almost drops his coffee as the barista says his name. “Are you going to drink that?” Kageyama asks with his arms folded over his chest. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Hinata coughs out, recovering from his shock. He brings the cup to his lips, watching Kageyama from the corner of his eye who was looking back at him with intense regard. 

Hinata’s tastebuds bursts with a wonderful mix of bitter and sweet. He had ordered his usual drink, so it was easy to compare it to his order from the previous day. Kageyama had somehow improved upon his coffee order immensely; it was obvious he had focused more on the bitter aspect of the coffee, causing Hinata to smile at the thought of Kageyama taking his comment earlier seriously. 

“Hmmm…” Hinata pauses for dramatic effect, Kageyama’s eyes narrow, “Hold the sugar.” Almost immediately, Kageyama reaches for his notepad, but Hinata grabs for it before the barista, “You’re sweet enough for me.” 

Hinata giggles as he pinpoints the exact moment realization dawns upon the barista. 

“What does that even mean?” Kageyama’s face scruches up in confusion, staring down at Hinata in genuine curiosity. 

“It’s a pick-up line!” Hinata responds as he stifles another giggle, shaking his head in fondness. “Don’t worry about it, the coffee is absolutely perfect.” Kageyama’s mouth forms an o-shape at the short explanation, but deadpans quickly after. 

“You’re calling _me_ sweet, Hinata-san?” Kageyama asks in amusement, one of his eyebrows arches, “You just met me.” 

“Then let’s get to know each other!” Hinata grins, “Give me your number and i’ll text you a latte.” Hinata has to stifle a guffaw this time at the way Kageyama visibly cringes at Hinata’s attempt. 

“That was so bad.” 

“That was _not_!” Hinata’s jaw drops, affronted at the barista’s comment, “My pick-up lines are top-tier if I do say so myself.”

“Maybe in another world, yeah.” Kageyama leans slightly closer across the counter as his hands grasp the edges.

“You’re literally the only person who doesn’t appreciate them.” Hinata says, “That is a grave offense, Kageyama.”

Kageyama tilts his head, a look of beguilment passes his face. Hinata leans closer to the counter as well. He sets his coffee down and places his arms down on the surface as he gazes into the barista’s illuminated eyes. 

“Consider this, if I’m able to get you to smile or laugh at one of my pick-up lines, you’ll give me your number.” 

Hinata can see the gears turn in Kageyama’s head as he contemplates Hinata’s challenge for a moment. 

“Sure, but that won’t happen.” Kageyama lets go of the counter, crossing his arms across his chest again, curious, but sure of himself. Hinata feels a spark of determination run through his body at this, his lips quirk up in a sly smile.

“Just you wait, Kageyama! You’ll be texting me your sorries pretty soon!” And with that, Hinata grabs for his coffee before heading for the exit. 

“As if.” Kageyama scoffs, but doesn’t miss the wink Hinata sends him before shutting the door behind himself.

Hinata wakes up the next morning with a motive in mind. He ignores Yamaguchi’s complaints of him making too much noise “too early in the morning” (he’s exhausted from serving practice from the previous day’s volleyball practice) and sprints out of his dorm room twenty minutes earlier than usual. On his way to Crow’s Cafe, Hinata almost bumps into two people and shouts out half-hearted apologies as he jogs towards his destination.

Hinata’s always loves a challenge. Even though he’s only met Kageyama just two days ago, he couldn’t get the image of the flustered look the barista had plastered across his face for a quick moment from their first encounter out of his head and felt an unknown, but strong drive to be the cause of the expression again.

But as Hinata opens the door to Crow’s Cafe, he realizes he might have to wait before he’d see that look again because instead of the familiar, metallic-eyed barista at the counter, there’s a friendlier one who’s smiling at him cheerily.

“Good morning!” The barista chirps, “What will you have today?” 

“A medium caramel cappuccino.” Hinata recites like clockwork. He wasn’t counting on Kageyama not working; but now that Hinata thinks about it, Kageyama not working in the mornings when he looks like he’s around Hinata’s age makes sense. 

“Where’s Kageyama?” Hinata blurts out as the friendly-looking barista turns around to make his order. Its clear the barista is caught off-guard from the question from the way his eyebrows raise, but he gives Hinata a curious smile. 

“He doesn’t have shifts today,” the barista responds simply, “Are you his friend?” 

“I wouldn’t say friend exactly?” Hinata mumbles thoughtfully as his arm reaches up to scratch at his head, “I made a deal with him that if I get him to smile at one of my pick-up lines, he’ll give me his phone number.” 

“Oh, _that_ kind of relationship!” The barista bursts into laughter, “Good luck with that! I’d definitely want to see that.”

The barista hands Hinata his drink and gives him a blinding smile. Hinata’s eyes widen as his silver hair almost seems to glow as the early morning sun rays hit it. “Don’t worry, its on me.” 

“Are you sure-”

“Yes! It’s fine, any friend of Kageyama- well, kind of friend, is a friend of mine.” 

Hinata finds himself smiling sheepishly from the comment and free coffee; the older barista’s smile was contagious.

After thanking the barista cheerily, the barista adds one last comment with a sly smile before Hinata exits the cafe: 

“By the way, Kageyama works all weekday evenings except Wednesdays, so come back tomorrow.”

“Don’t forget to lock up, Shouyou!” Yamaguchi shouts before closing the gym door behind him. Hinata heaves a breath before tossing up his volleyball and lowers his back to run up to the end-line for his palm to make impact with the ball. He feels his breath hitch as the ball lands out-of-bounds on the other side of the net. Jump serves are a pain, Hinata groans to himself. 

Hinata usually stays back, but with no plans after today’s practice he’s decided to stay back longer than his other teammates to practice his serves. 

Hinata jogs across the gym to pick up the volleyball, suddenly aware that his movements echo especially loudly as he’s the only one occupying the court. As worn leather meets his palm, Hinata’s eyebrows furrow.

As much as he wants to add the jump serve into his repertoire, Hinata wants to spike. The team’s setters were unable to keep up with his overflowing energy, and both of them turned down Hinata’s requests (read: he begged) to stay back for an extra hour or two to practice with him. Respecting their wishes, Hinata settles on practicing his serves.

But that does nothing for Hinata’s growing hunger for flying towards a volleyball, and the satisfying feeling of spiking it down successfully on the other side of the court. 

“I like the way you espresso yourself, Kageyama.” Hinata grins as Kageyama sets his coffee down on the the table Hinata’s settled himself at. 

“How I express myself?” Kageyama asks.

“No- _espresso_ yourself- forget it.” Hinata pouts in frustration, Kageyama’s eyebrows raise in amusement. 

A customer enters the shop and Kageyama returns to the register. Hinata takes out a single notebook and a laptop from his bag. As he scrolls through his classwork, his hands begin to twitch in agitation as the words blur together on the screen. He’s reading, but the words don’t settle into his mind. 

Twenty minutes of reading through his assignment passes and Hinata shuts his eyes in frustration. He reaches for his coffee, momentarily comforted by the familiar taste. 

“What class?” Kageyama speaks up from behind the counter. Hinata looks up from his work, glad he has an excuse to not stare down at his laptop any longer. 

“Statistics,” Hinata groans, “I don’t want to fail, so I asked my professor for an extra-credit assignment.” Kageyama sets his arms down on the counter and leans towards Hinata’s direction.

“Statistics? Are you a math major?” 

“Oh gosh no,” Hinata gasps, “I’m a sociology major, I’ve just been having a _really_ hard time with statistics.” Kageyama nods, Hinata appreciates how attentive he is and continues.

“It’s not a bad major, I can kind of see myself in that field…” he trails off as his mind wanders to his late evenings in the gym.

“But there’s something else?” Kageyama finishes for him. 

Hinata smiles lightly to himself, “Yeah, something else.” 

The door rings and the barista slides his arms off of the counter, ready to greet another incoming customer. Hinata takes this as the universe’s cue for him to get back into his assignment. After settling his gaze back to his screen, Hinata picks at a certain part of his assignment and begins to brainstorm into his notebook. 

While rummaging through his backpack for his formulas sheet, Kageyama sits at the opposite side of the table from him. Hinata grabs at the familiar piece of crumpled paper before turning to face the barista. 

“I’m on my break.” Kageyama simply states. Hinata notes that he wasn’t wearing his usual apron, and stifles a laugh at his onigiri graphic tee.

“Ah, so you want to spend your free time with me, Kageyama-kun?” Hinata couldn’t help but tease, “I guess i’ve grown on you.” 

“Grown on me? As if, don’t act like you’re not here solely just to annoy me.” Kageyama huffs, “And I don’t exactly have anything else to do then watch you suffer over math.” 

“You’re not wrong, but I’m also attracted to your coffee, so that’s a plus. And hey, that’s rude!” 

“It’s true though.” 

“Yeah, it is,” Hinata admits in defeat as he sips at his coffee, “What do you major in anyways?” 

Kageyama pauses, “Sports medicine.” 

Hinata’s eyes widens in excitement, “Sports medicine, really!? That’s amazing!” Hinata shoves his laptop aside, his full attention on Kageyama. “Do you like it?” 

Kageyama nods. “Its interesting. I’m thinking about becoming an athletic trainer.” Hinata grabs at his gym bag sitting on the floor beside his legs and pulls out a volleyball, taking note in the immediate twinkle in Kageyama’s eyes and how his posture suddenly straightens.

“Are you interested in any sports then? I play volleyball-” 

“Volleyball!” Kageyama quickly cuts in, “I like- I like volleyball.” Hinata’s grin grows impossibly wider.

“When do you get off your shift?”

“Your jump serves suck.” 

“Yeah, I _know_ that!” Hinata exclaims, glaring at Kageyama who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. 

After Kageyama finished his shift (and Hinata took the time to work on his assignment, read: he tried to), he led Hinata out the back door of the cafe. With Hinata’s volleyball and a few water bottles in hand, they practiced a few receives and now moved to serves. 

Hinata grabs his volleyball and shoves it towards Kageyama, “Lets see yours then, bigshot.” 

Kageyama takes the volleyball from his hands; Hinata doesn’t miss the ghost of a smirk lingering on his face and immediately realizes he’s going to regret his words. As Kageyama settles himself in a corner of the area, he holds the ball between both of his hands for a moment before neatly tossing it into the air. He crouches his back low and follows with a run-up to make strong impact with the volleyball, a smacking sound reverberates in the air around them as the ball smashes down right in front of Hinata. The ball almost crashes into Hinata from the impact, but he quickly realizes to back up before catching the volleyball. 

“That was…” Hinata stands still, his words stuck in his throat before spilling out uncontrollably, “Kageyama-kun, that was so cool!” he shrieks. “How long have you been playing? Are you on your school’s volleyball team too? Can you teach me how to serve like that-” Hinata gasps, his eyes widen with excitement, “Kageyama, what’s your position?” 

“Setter,” Kageyama responds, attempting to take in the many questions thrown at him at once. 

Unable to contain his exhilaration, Hinata moves closer to Kageyama and shoves the volleyball towards him. 

“Set for me.” Kageyama hesitantly holds the ball. He glances down at it, unsure. 

“I haven’t set for anyone in-” Hinata’s eyes pierce through Kageyama’s. He feels as if electricity has run through his body as Kageyama nods and makes his way to the middle of the small, concrete yard. 

Hinata stands in place as an electric-like feeling courses to his soles, his heart strumming to a rhythm he has never heard before. As Kageyama stands in position, Hinata’s legs move on their own, dashing towards the setter who extends his arms. Hinata’s legs stop after long strides.

And he soars. 

As Hinata reaches the peak of his jump, the ball reaches his palm and flies downwards onto the concrete ground after he spikes it down. Hinata falls down onto the ground from shock, his eyes on staring at his hands in awe. 

“What- what was that?!” Kageyama gasps in revelation. Hinata turns his head to him, “How do you jump so high- how did we do that?!” 

“Kageyama!” Hinata screeches, his eyes light up effortlessly. 

The aforementioned stares down at him, exhilaration runs through his eyes and his hair is starting to ruffle up a bit. Hinata’s heart begins to palpitate at the thought of Kageyama setting for him again; he wants to feel that adrenaline rush through him again. 

“Set for me again!” He demands. Kageyama stares down at Hinata thoughtfully for a moment, as if he’s considering multiple options. Before Hinata gets the change to ask him anything of it, Kageyama nods and extends his hand out. Hinata grins before grabbing at it and pushes himself up with the setter’s help. Before practicing another quick, Hinata quickly walks over to his waterbottle. 

“Are you a time traveller, Kageyama-kun?” Hinata asks as he sets his bottle down.

“Why do you ask?” 

“Because I see you in _my future!_ ” Before Hinata could add another comment, he dodges the volleyball hurling fast towards the brick wall besides him.

 _“What was that for?!”_ Hinata shrieks, quickly grabbing at the volleyball defensively before Kageyama can pull anything else.

_“Do you want me to set for you or not?!”_

Hinata is sitting up at his desk late at night as Yamaguchi settles into his bed. 

“Are you sure you don’t need anything?” Yamaguchi asks with concern. His hand hovers near his bedside lamp as he waits for Hinata’s answer. 

“Yeah! I just need to finish brainstorming for this assignment and I’ll head to bed, don’t worry about it.” Hinata reassures his roommate. 

“Alright. Good night Shou.” 

When the only source of light in the room is Hinata’s laptop screen and mini-desklamp, Hinata heaves a heavy sigh as he picks up his pencil and begins to write down the formulas he’ll need for the assignment. It doesn’t take long before his mind wanders to the hours-long practice session he had just finished with Kageyama just half an hour ago. 

Hinata glaces at the clock: its midnight. 

They practiced their quick an innumerable amount of times until even Hinata felt exhaustion seep into his legs. It didn’t take long before the duo learn that after the first quick, it was difficult to continuously produce the same lightening-fast and powerful spike. There were also too many times where Hinata would straight up miss the ball after Kageyama set to him, but Hinata would prefer to forget how many times that happened. 

Hinata smiles to himself as he remembers Kageyama cleaning up the cafe after the late night of practice. 

_“You’re probably planning to stay up working on that assignment because I kept you here,” They’re standing outside the cafe, Hinata’s hands stuffed in his pockets as he attempts to warm himself from the icy autumn weather, “So here.” Kageyama holds out a cup of coffee, eyes considerably serious, but genuine as Hinata smiles up at the barista._

_“Thank you! And you’re right, honestly.” Hinata comments gratefully as he takes the cup of coffee. His fingers briefly touches Kageyama’s for a moment and Hinata ignores the leap his heart takes as he brings the coffee to his chest._

_It turns out Kageyama lives a few blocks away from the university, so Hinata takes this chance to ask the barista a few of the pressing questions from the back of his mind as they walk the same way._

_“You go to Miyagi University too?” Kageyama nods._

_“So why haven’t you tried out for our volleyball team? You’re pretty good!”_

_Kageyama shakes his head no, “I stopped playing volleyball officially after high school,” Kageyama pauses; he glances down at Hinata to see the spiker hanging onto his words and continues._

_“My grandfather got diagnosed with a heart disease in my last year of high school, so I’ve been working at the cafe as much as I can to help pay for some hospital bills.”_

_Hinata nods, taking in Kageyama’s explanation. “Is that why you went into medicine?” Kageyama nods._

_“Yeah, Sports Medicine specifically because neither my grandfather or me wants me to give up volleyball completely.”_

_“Giving up?” Hinata questions. Kageyama’s statement doesn’t sit with him, “Who said you gave up?” The pair reaches a fork in the road. Kageyama stares down at Hinata, a mixture of confusion and curiosity burns through his eyes, but Kageyama points to a specific side of the road._

_“I go this way.” Kageyama explains, the inquisitive look in his eye still lingers. Hinata’s mouth makes an o-shape, understanding._

_“Dream of me, Kageyama-kun!” Hinata exclaims as he waves goodbye. He holds the warm coffee close as the barista rolls his eyes (fondly, but Hinata swears he was just seeing things) and waves back._

“Who are you, Kageyama-kun?” Hinata whispers to himself into the dimly-lit dorm room. He heaves a breath and stares down at his notebook in thought for a moment, and then sets to work.

A week of late-night practices passes with Kageyama and even Hinata’s teammates have noticed an improvement with his spikes, receives, and serves. Save Wednesday, which is Kageyama’s off-day where Hinata learns the barista visits his grandfather at the hospital, the duo spends almost every hour after school together. 

As Hinata enters the cafe that late Thursday afternoon, he holds up a packet of paper with a large, red “85” written across the top. 

“Kageyama!” Hinata exclaims, his lips naturally quirks up in a grin. He ignores the looks sent his way from nearby customers and makes his way to Kageyama, “I passed! I’m passing statistics!” Hinata smacks down his assignment onto the counter between them. 

“Congrats, I’m glad you were able to do it with that volleyball brain of yours.” Kageyama quips. 

“Hey, don’t act like you’re not the same!” Hinata exclaims, feigning an offended look, “Anyways, this means extra special tosses today.” 

“Extra special? Why are they special?” 

“Because your tosses are fun to hit, Kageyama-kun.” Hinata says as if its the easiest thing in the world. He settles his stuff at his usual table in front of the counter and sits down. “So today, they’re going to be extra fun since I’m passing statistics!” 

Kageyama stares at him incredulously, “Don’t just say things like that, idiot!” 

“What, why not?! It’s true, your tosses are-” 

“Stop!” 

“No! Do you want me to insult you instead-”

“What is going _on_ out here?” 

Hinata jumps in his seat as a familiar silver-haired barista emerges from the kitchen. Kageyama flinches as the barista rests a hand on his shoulder.

“Sorry Sugawara-san, it wont happen again-” 

“Hinata!” Sugawara grins at the aforementioned, Hinata smiles in response, “Good to see you again. I see you and Kageyama have gotten closer.” 

“Y-yes!” Hinata stammers as his cheeks flush pink, “Sorry for making a ruckus um...Sugawara-san.” Sugawara shakes his free hand as his eyes shapes into crescents. 

“You don’t need to apologize, just keep it down a bit.” Hinata’s shoulders loosen from Sugawara’s words, “You, however,” Sugawara turns his attention to the younger barista with a devious look, “Don’t get too distracted by cute customers, Kageyama-kun.” 

Kageyama mumbles under his breath as he quickly turns to hide his reddening ears from view. He grabs a towel to wipe down tables as Sugawara chuckles at his antics.

“Have fun, Kageyama-kun. I’ll look forward to your extra special tosses later.” Hinata grins as Kageyama feigns throwing the towel at him. As Hinata once again settles into his table, he reaches for his phone to scroll through his gallery. 

Some time passes before Hinata grows restless. With his extra credit out of the way, he doesn’t have any other pressing assignments to work on. Hinata glances at the time: it's only 6 P.M. Kageyama doesn’t finish his shift for another hour.

Hinata’s hunger to fly and spike grows with every passing second. Kageyama’s sets always satisfied this need for him, but he still yearned for more practice sessions with the setter. 

He glimpses up to see what Kageyama was working on at the moment and finds him at the front of the cafe wiping down tables. The long-sleeve shirt under his work apron was folded to his elbows and his arms flexed as he wipes down the small pieces of grit across the table. Kageyama wipes his forehead, brushing his bangs to the side as he finishes up cleaning the table.

Hinata’s not oblivious to his growing feelings towards Kageyama. He’s been interested in him since the day they met, but he never expected the barista to not push him away and instead, welcomed him openly (even if constant quips and volleyballs were hurled towards him). Hinata constantly finds himself intrigued with the barista; he wants to learn more about Kageyama, from his relationship with volleyball to possibly his relationship with him and why the barista constantly stares at Hinata with curious eyes. 

Hinata’s heart jumps into his throat when his eyes clash with familiar metallic blue. Kageyama has moved onto another table and caught Hinata’s eye following him. 

“What? Do you like what you see?” Kageyama asks, teasing lightly. Hinata’s ears burn red at Kageyama’s words accompanied with his satisfied smile. Hinata feels his words scramble together as he attempts to speak up, refusing to back down.

“Yup!” He says unnecessarily loudly, “I think there’s something wrong with my eyes, Kageyama. I can’t seem to take them off of you!” 

Hinata grins victoriously as Kageyama’s cheeks flushes pink and his eyes widen in shock. 

“Go to the eye doctor then…” he mumbles before turning his back and begins to aggressively wipe down at the table besides him. Hinata giggles to himself as he gives himself a mental high five before turning back to his phone. As he returns to scrolling through his gallery, a voice interrupts Hinata’s concentration.

“Looks like you two are enjoying this challenge, right Hinata?” Sugawara sits beside Hinata. 

“I am! I mean,” Hinata pauses, “I’m not sure about Kageyama though-” 

“He never denied you were cute earlier.” Sugawara interrupts, a teasing hint to his voice. Hinata’s eyes widen, quickly glancing at Kageyama who was making his way to the kitchen with his towel, and then back at Sugawara. The barista winks at him before pointing at his phone. 

“Is that you?” Hinata glances at his phone. His gallery app was still open, a video of Hinata paused.

“Yeah! It's from my first year in high school when I tried coffee for the first time.” 

“Only high school?” Sugawara pauses, Hinata looks at him with a curious glance before Sugawara continues, “Nevermind, that’s actually pretty good. Why do you look sick here?” 

“I didn’t drink coffee well with my first few drinks!” Hinata laughs as the video plays. Younger Hinata, although very hyper in the video, definitely had a sick look to his face. 

“How much did you drink?” Sugawara asks.

“Just a normal iced coffee!” Hinata shrugs, “My limit’s grown since then though, I can have up to two shots of espresso without looking like _that_ , I think.” 

Sugawara laughs at Hinata’s response. 

“Just two? That’s pretty weak.” Hinata whips his head to the counter to see Kageyama at his usual station. “I think I can have four without crashing.” 

“No that’s not weak! And that’s really unhealthy” Hinata jeers, glaring at the barista. 

“Yeah probably not healthy, not still-”

“I can probably try it! Four’s not too bad!” Hinata exclaims. He stands up from his seat and makes his way to the counter. “Give me a coffee with four espresso shots!” 

Sugawara and Kageyama glances at each other, unsure. 

“Well, he is the costumer, Kageyama.” Sugawara cuts in. Kageyama glimpses back at Hinata who’s expression was unwavering and finally gives in. 

“Why did you let me do this?!” Kageyama shouts at his laughing manager as Hinata clings to his arms. 

“Kageyama, toss for me!” Hinata exclaims, his grin appears shaky, “My legs are shaking, I feel like running to Tokyo!” 

“You heard him Kageyama, toss for him!” Sugawara manages to say. Before Kageyama could object, Hinata grasps Kageyama’s hand and runs towards the back door. 

“But what about the cafe?” Kageyama asks as Hinata shoves his volleyball towards him. Sugawara deadpans and waves his arms around his general area. Oh right, there usually are no costumers around this time. 

Hinata grasps at Kageyama’s arm again, “Kageyama, if you don’t toss for me, I’m going to toss for myself and spike too.” 

As Kageyama stands in his position, Hinata jogs his way across the court yard. As he turns, he begins to dash towards Kageyama at a speed far quicker than either of them were used to. As Hinata suddenly comes to a stop, he soars at a height he’s never reached before. It takes every muscle of Kageyama’s to not drop the ball in shock as he tosses the volleyball in a perfect arch; Hinata’s palms make strong impact as he spikes the ball down in a perfect straight-shot. 

“How did you guys do that?!” Sugawara exclaims in shock. Before either Hinata or Kageyama could say anything, the older barista dashes back into the kitchen. 

Kageyama stands in shock; he wasn’t aware Hinata could jump so high either. 

“That was amazing, Kageyama-kun!” Hinata shrieks in excitement, “Lets…” Kageyama looks down at Hinata. His face was pale and his arms were shaking. 

“Let’s bring you to your dormroom, you look like you’re about to throw up-”

“Wait!” Sugawara returns with a half-full coffee cup, laughter taking hold of his breath again, “Just one more sip, c’mon. Lets see how high he can _really_ jump.” 

“Sugawara-san,” Kageyama deadpans as he grabs onto Hinata’s hand, “I’m bringing him to his dormroom.” 

After the two finally makes their way to the dormroom, Hinata tells Kageyama he’s starting to feel dizzy. 

“Don’t worry, we’re almost there.” Kageyama mumbles under his breath. Hinata feels Kageyama grasp his hands as they finally enter his dorm building. 

“Sh-Shouyou?!” Yamaguchi stutters in surprise as he enters the room with Kageyama as support. “Is he drunk?” he asks, looking to Kageyama for an answer. 

“No, just a caffeine high.” Kageyama answers as he helps Hinata onto his bed. As Hinata sinks into his mattress, Kageyama tucks Hinata under his blanket.

After making sure he has a cup of water by his bedside table, Kageyama waves goodbye at Yamaguchi and exits the dorm room.

“I knew you’d get a caffeine high someday, Shou.” Yamaguchi mutters as he folds his arms over his chest. Hinata mutters something incomprehensible in response as he shuts his eyes.

“Also, now I know why you’ve been going to that cafe so much- What was that for?!” Hinata lazily tosses a pillow right to Yamaguchi’s head as his voice becomes teasing. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll let you sleep.” 

A rush of adrenaline rushes through his blood as Hinata strikes down another one of Kageyama’s sets. As Hinata settles his feet onto the ground, he raises his hands to high-five the setter who awkwardly returns the gesture. Kageyama gives Hinata a genuine smile, a product of their successful work, and Hinata feels his heart pause to admire this moment.

Their quicks were becoming more and more consistent, and Hinata still finds himself running to the cafe after volleyball practice to wait for Kageyama’s shift to end. In the meantime, he continues to throw pick-up lines at the setter, who still turns him down. Although Hinata is sure Kageyama flushed pink at one of them, he doesn’t mention it. 

_(“I feel something brewing between us, don’t you Kageyama-kun?” Hinata asks teasingly as he sets his arms on the counter between them. Kageyama pretends to roll his eyes and turns around, failing to hide his red ears.)_

They’ve been practicing for about an hour now, so the sky above them has started to darken. Although winter was approaching, their constant exercise kept their bodies warm. As they approach their waterbottles at the edge of the small courtyard, Hinata settles down onto the ground. 

“Kageyama,” Hinata starts, the aforementioned immediately looks down at him, “You like practicing with me, right? Why?” 

Kageyama settles down next to him, his waterbottle still in his hands, “I miss setting for someone,” he answers simply. He turns to Hinata, unaware he was staring at him so attentively, and continues. 

“I was the official setter for my high school in my second and third year, but I was switched out a few times because my team never liked my sets,” Kageyama explains, Hinata’s eyebrows raise in surprise, “They would always say they were too ‘kingly’ so I had to stop setting like how I normally do.” 

“But I still like volleyball, even if I decided to do Sports Medicine instead,” Kageyama pauses, his eyebrows scrunches up in frustration, “Its why I want to be an Athletic Trainer, for me, for my grandfather...” he trails off as he looks to Hinata.

“That’s pretty amazing of you, Kageyama,” Hinata whispers, “You’re gone through so much but...you still want to be surrounded by what you love.” Kageyama’s eyes widen at this, but Hinata gives him a content smile. 

“What did you mean the other day, when you said I didn’t actually give up.” Kageyama asks Hinata. 

Hinata shrugs his shoulder, setting the water bottle at his side as he pushes himself up as turns to face Kageyama.

“It means you never stopped loving volleyball and you’re still doing everything you can to keep loving it.” Hinata stretches out his hand, inviting Kageyama to take it. Kageyama gazes at Hinata in awe, but eventually takes his outstretched hand. 

Hinata beams, his eyes shape into crescents

“Toss for me, Kageyama-kun.”

“A hot latte, please.” 

“You don’t usually order hot coffee.” Kageyama comments with an eyebrow raised. Hinata only smiles into the scarf wrapped around his neck as Kageyama gets to work on Hinata’s order. 

“It's getting warmer, Kageyama-kun. I have a practice game coming up, so the last thing I need is for me to catch a cold.” 

“So you _do_ know how to take care of yourself.” 

“Yeah- hey!” Hinata catches himself and folds his arms over his winter jacket, “Of course I do, I’m going to become a professional volleyball player.” 

“A professional volleyball who has a limit of four espresso shots.” Kageyama adds.

“You’ll never live that down, will you?” 

Kageyama gives a small nod in response, acknowledging Hinata’s statement as he places a lid on the coffee order.

“Here’s your order.” Kageyama pushes the cup towards Hinata. However, Hinata was too occupied with rummaging through his wallet for an extra bill to notice the coffee Kageyama shoved towards him, causing the cup to topple down to the floor. 

Kageyama rushes to the other side of the counter, a towel somehow at his hand. Too stunned to move, Hinata cringes greatly as coffee stains his shoes and streaks across his clothes, gasping from shock. Kageyama places the towel on the ground and quickly rubs at the spill, then proceeds to move Hinata to a table to sit him down. 

“Are you hurt anywhere?” Kageyama stares at Hinata’s shoes, his eyebrows scrunch together in worry. 

“I’m fine! No need to worry, Kageyama, I’m just- ow!” As Hinata moves to take off his shoes, his hands briefly touches hot drops of coffee. Kageyama reaches for Hinata’s wrists in panic, quickly examining his fingers and catching Hinata off-guard. Kageyama looks from his hands to his shoes, worry etches across his face. 

After he finally removes his shoes and socks, Hinata and Kageyama wipes his shoes dry while they carefully avoid touching the drops of coffee.

“This coffee was hot,” Hinata starts, Kageyama glances at him. 

“Did you burn yourself again-”

“But you’re hotter, Kageyama-kun.” Hinata adds a poorly done wink, and Kageyama stares at him in shock. Hinata wonders if he’s said something wrong, but it doesn’t take long for Kageyama to double over in laughter. 

Hinata stares at the barista in shock, unsure if he was dreaming or not; Kageyama was clutching his stomach, his eyes scruched together as his laughter fills the cafe. Hinata stares at Kageyama in awe, unaware of his own smile that formed across his face. 

“That was so bad, but” Kageyama pauses to wipe a tear that had formed at the corner of his eye, “your timing was so funny.” Hinata begins to laugh as well, agreeing with the barista. 

“It was good, what are you talking about!” 

“Really?” Kageyama responds, laughter still playing in his voice, “You really think I’m hot?” 

Hinata feels his cheeks burn from both laughter and shock “Don’t get too ahead of yourself pretty boy-”

“So now you think I’m pretty?”

“Oh forget it! Hey, you owe me your phone number now, don’t you?” 

Hinata sits up in his bed, tapping away at his phone as Yamaguchi watches him curiously. 

“Why do you look like that?” Yamaguchi finally asks.

“Like what?” Hinata doesn’t even spare him a glance. 

“Like you got a boyfriend or something.” 

Hinata flinches, eyes wide as he looks up at Yamaguchi. “Kageyama is not my boyfriend!” He exclaims.

It was the weekend, meaning the cafe was closed. Kageyama decided to spend the weekend with his grandfather, but ever since they exchanged phone numbers, the pair has been sending each other texts throughout the day. 

“I never said he was!” Yamaguchi shakes his arms defensively, “Is that who you’re texting? Is it that barista guy?” 

Hinata nods, turning his attention back to his phone as his phone buzzes from another text message, “Yeah! I won a deal we had, so he gave me his number.” 

**[yamayama-kun]**

Didn’t you say you had a volleyball game coming up a few days ago? 

**[me]**

You mean the day you finally smiled at my pickup line? Yes, i did say that

**[yamayama-kun]**

You’ll never live that down will you

**[yamayama-kun]**

It’s a practice game right? Is it at our school?

**[me]**

Yeah! (to both questions)

**[me]**

Why do you ask? Want to see me in my element, kageyama? Wouldn’t you miss work?

**[yamayama-kun]**

Yeah i want to watch you play with a team. And its alright… I’m sure sugawara-san can give me an off day. 

**[yamayama-kun]**

So when’s the game?

Hinata paces up and down the hallway as he mentally reviews his team’s strategies. Both his hands were stuffed into his windbreaker’s pockets and his eyes were glaring holes into the ground.

Before Hinata had run off with an excuse of heading to the bathroom, the team had thoroughly reviewed how they would defeat their opponents. They had a defensive and offensive strategy, and also planned when to switch out players to strengthen the likelihood of gaining points. Nonetheless, Hinata was aware that this was his first game since he started practicing with Kageyama; this practice game would tell Hinata whether or not he really improved as a volleyball player. 

“Hinata,” His thought process interrupts as a warm hard touches his shoulder. Hinata looks up to meet familiar, deep blue irises. “You’ve practiced like hell, you’ll be fine.” 

“Kageyama,” Hinata breathes, his shoulders loosen from tension that had built up, “How’d you know i’d be here?” 

“I reached the bleachers when I saw you run off,” Kageyama answers as he removes his hand from Hinata’s shoulder. Hinata bites at his lips in apprehension at the loss of the warm feeling and glances back to the ground. 

“How do you know i’ll be fine?” the spiker whispers, “What if I disappoint the team? What about myself- you!-” 

“You’re not going to disappoint anyone.” Kageyama grasps Hinata’s hands this time, as if he knew Hinata’s body craves Kageyama’s familiar warmth in this moment. “One, its just a practice game. Its like a progress check to see how you’ll play against a team and a chance to try things out without the actual pressure of a game.” 

Hinata chuckles at this, “I know that Kageyama-kun.” 

“Yeah? Well remember it. And two, how can you disappoint anyone when all you’ve done is get stronger the last two weeks? Just do what you usually do with me.” Kageyama assures Hinata, who finally feels as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders at Kageyama’s words. 

“What we usually do,” Hinata takes a deep breath and squeezes their interlocked hands, “Right.”

Hinata feels as if his chest is on fire as the other team’s coach calls for the final time-out of the game. He presses a towel to his face, drying the sweat running down his face as he reaches for his water bottle. 

They were in the final set of the practice game. The score was barely in their favor, at 20-19 and if they took this set, they would win the game. The crowd in the bleachers waited anxiously, and if Hinata squints, he’s sure he can see Kageyama with his arms folded across his chest as he analyzes the court patiently. 

“Hinata-san,” the official setter of Hinata’s team approaches Hinata, “Hinata-san, I don’t feel too well.” At these words, a few other team members turn their heads. 

“What do you mean?” Hinata asks, eyebrows scrunched together in worry as he sets a hand on the setter’s shoulder, “Is it because of the dump?” 

During the middle of the last set, the team’s setter attempted to try a dump from the front line, but was immediately caught by the other team’s captain. 

Hinata watches as the setter nods, anxiety written in his eyes. 

“Hey,” Hinata squeezes the setter’s shoulder, “Its alright, we can make up for the points we miss. The game’s not over yet!” The setter looks up from the ground and Hinata can feel his shoulders loosen at his words. Hinata’s eyes soften 

“We can make up for them…” the setter mumbles. At this, Yamaguchi and his other teammates chimes in, reassuring their setter that they have his back. 

“You’re on a team, we’ll stack up points together.” Hinata tells the setter who nods, a smile finally gracing his lips. 

As he backs up for a moment to let his teammates encourage their setter, Hinata glances at the bleachers to look for a certain barista. When he finally finds familiar metallic eyes, who was conveniently already staring at Hinata, Hinata grins joyfully. As Kageyama returns the gesture with a small smile of his own, Hinata feels a burst of adrenaline course through him. 

The referee blows their whistle. Hinata walks onto the court with full intention to finish up and win this game. 

A whistle blows to signal the end of the game and Hinata’s teammates rushes to tackle him. In the final few seconds of the game, Hinata soared up with full intention to score the winning point. After spiking the volleyball directly down on the other side of the net, the crowd from the bleachers exploded in cheers 

“Hinata, you did it!” Yamaguchi cheers as he ruffles Hinata’s hair. 

“Hinata-san, that was so amazing!” their setter cries as he squeezes Hinata. Hinata laughs, happy he’s able to share this moment with his team.

After the two teams bow to each other, they rush to the locker rooms to change out of their sweaty uniforms, but Hinata lingers on the court to look through the bleachers. 

“Over here, you idiot.” Hinata whirls around to see Kageyama standing a few feet behind him. In his arms he held a small bouquet of sunflowers wrapped neatly in brown wrapping paper all held together with a small white ribbon. 

Overwhelmed with exhilaration, Hinata rushes over to Kageyama with his arms wide open. “Kageyama, we won!” Kageyama accepts Hinata’s hug and holds the spiker tight in his arms. 

“You did so well, Hinata.” Kageyama mutters under his breath. Hinata holds Kageyama for a few more moments, taking in the warmth of Kageyama’s arms. After his heart finally calms from post-match adrenaline, Hinata lets go. 

Kageyama holds out the bouquet of sunflowers towards Hinata, his ears reddening with every passing second. “This is for you.” 

Hinata takes the bouquet of flowers, his cheeks flushed from the gesture. 

“Thank you, Kageyama…” Hinata glimpses at the messily made white bow, which immediately brings a smile to his face, “Did you really think I would win that much? That’s why you got me these flowers, right?” Hinata teases. 

“Well, yeah I had a small feeling, but that wasn’t why I got you those.” Kageyama glimpses at the ground before gazing directly into Hinata’s eyes; Hinata’s heart jumps into his throat as Kageyama’s cheeks flush pink. 

“There’s this new cafe that opened a few blocks away and I wanted to try out their menu.” Kageyama rambles, “I don’t really think Crow’s Cafe would be a good idea because Sugawara-san would never let me hear the end of it, but if you want-”

“Are you asking me on a date, Kageyama-kun?” Hinata asks, his smile growing impossibly wider. Kageyama nods, sending an immediate feeling of elation through Hinata’s body. Hinata stands on his tiptoes and presses his lips onto Kageyama’s cheek. As he leans away, Kageyama’s eyes are wide, but Hinata doesn’t miss the joy that sparks through them as their eyes meet. 

“I’d love to go to this new cafe.” Hinata giggles happily as Kageyama’s lips forms a sincere and endearing smile.

“Alright, but go change first, you stink.”

Hinata hits Kageyama’s shoulder lightly, “Fine, but wait for me!” he beams cheerily. 

Kageyama’s smile doesn’t waver, “I’ll always wait for you.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate it :] 
> 
> By the way, the scene where Hinata drinks four shots of espresso is heavily based off my feelings from when I drunk four shots of espresso myself for the heck of it. Its horrible, I do not recommend trying that. 
> 
> Kageyama's laugh was also heavily inspired by This video: https://twitter.com/ctrlyaku/status/1231436869654568962?s=20
> 
> twitter: [sunbeamshou](https://twitter.com/sunbeamshou)


End file.
